Button v. Maker

1921 OK 235, 200 P. 777, 83 Okla. 75, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 309
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJune 14, 1921
Docket11514
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1921 OK 235 (Button v. Maker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Button v. Maker, 1921 OK 235, 200 P. 777, 83 Okla. 75, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 309 (Okla. 1921).

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

The record discloses that on September 19, 1914, J. A. Maker, as plaintiff, commenced an action against E. N. Nellis, as defendant, to recover the sum of $5,150 upon a promissory note dated March 1, 1913, and on said day filed an attachment affidavit charging that the defendant was a non-resident of the state, upon which date an order of attachment was issued, and on September 24, 1914, the sheriff returned the attachment order showing that he had attached thereunder the real estate in question.

On October 28, 1914, within 60 days allowed by statute, affidavit for publication describing the attached property was filed and public notice describing the property was issued and published at once for the required time, and on February 20, 1915, default judgment was rendered against the said defendant, Nellis, for the amount of plaintiff’s indebtedness, sustaining the attachment and ordering the property sold, and on September 23, 1915, the sheriff duly sold said property at public auction, and one L. E. Minton became the purchaser, which sale was confirmed, and said Minton received his deed in due course.

■ About five years later, and after the said Minton had paid taxes on the property for several years, and the same had increased in value, appellants, who were not parties to the action originally or by substitution, decided that all of said court proceedings *76 were void because tbe attachment order was issued and levied upon tbe land before tbe affidavit for publication was filed, and on December 12, 1919, they filed a motion in the original case designated “Motion to Quash Attachment” and reciting only one ground for the motion, namely: “That this court had no jurisdiction of the subject-matter of this action at the time said order of attachment was issued.” Notice of this motion was given to J. A. Maker, the original plaintiff, but none was given to said L. E. Minton, the purchaser of the property. The court overruled the “Motion to Quash,” and this appeal was perfected therefrom.

Appellants make only one contention all through the ease. In their motion in the trial court, in their petition in error, and in their brief they say: “That the trial court had no jurisdiction when the attachment order was issued.” They argue that this is true because of the fact that the order issued before the publication affidavit was filed.

Concerning this contention counsel for plaintiffs in error say in their brief:

“It is the contention of the plaintiffs in error that no action can be commenced until either a summons has been issued or an affidavit for publication filed, and that since neither had been done before the order of attachment was made, everything under this purported order, including the seizure of the property, was void, and that any interested party could at any time move to quash and vacate it. Section 4812, Rev. Laws 1910, provides that: ‘That the plaintiff in a civil action for the recovery of money at or after the commencement thereof, may have an attachment against the property of the defendant.’ ”

Under this provision of the statute the first ground stated for an attachment Is the non-residence of the defendant, and it is also made a ground for procuring service and summons by publication under section 4722, Rev. Laws 1910.

In 4 Cyc. 395, it is said:

“Attachments may be used for two purposes: (1) To compel the appearance of the defendant; (2) to seize and hold his property for the payment of the debt to collect which suit is brought. For the first purpose, it was a common-law writ called attachment or pone. * * *”

And on page 403, the same book, it is said:

“Originally the purpose of the attachment laws seems to have been simply to compel’ the appearance of a debtor over whose person jurisdiction could not be obtained by ordinary process, but at an early date the remedy was generally extended by statute so as to serve the double purpose of compelling defendant’s appearance and securing to plaintiff the benefit of such judgment as he might recover.”

In Shinn on Attachment, page 345, it is said:

“The Purpose of the Writ — The purpose of the writ, or warrant qf attachment, under the present prevailing practice in attachment proceedings, is two-fold. Its first object is to cite the defendant to appear in person and defend the action begun against him, and its second object is to create an immediate lien upon the defendant’s property, to await and satisfy the judgment that n$ay 'be thereinafter entered against him. Such is the purpose when attachment is sought at 'the inception of the suit. But when it is resorted to only as an ancillary remedy in suits already begun by personal service, it has but the latter object to attain, the former having already been accomplished by the summons previously issued.”

In support of their contention appellants rely on sections 4703 and 4812, Rev. Laws 1910, which are as follows, respectively :

“A civil action may be commenced in a court of record by filing in the office of the clerk of the proper court a petition and causing a summons to be issued thereon.”
“The plaintiff in a civil action for the recovery of money may, at or after the commencement thereof, have an attachment against the property of the defendant. * **”

These provisions of our statute were borrowed from Kansas. (Kan. 4136; St. 1893, sec. 3931. Kan. 4273; St. 1893, sec. 4068.)

The cases by this court and the Supreme Court of Kansas discussing the propositions here involved and these sections of the statute cited by counsel, which seem to be all the oases by these courts bearing upon this question, are: Dunlap v. McFarlin, 25 Kan. 488; Bannister v. Carroll (Kan.) 22 Pac. 1012; Jones v. Warnick (Kan.) 30 Pac. 115; Raymond v. Nix et al., 5 Okla. 656, 49 Pac. 1110; Ballew v. Young, 24 Okla. 182, 103 Pac. 623; Richardson v. Carr, 68 Oklahoma, 171 Pac. 476; Pettis v. Johnston, 78 Okla. 277, 190 Pac. 681. An examination of these cases will disclose that none of them are in point on all the essential particulars here involved, but each, perhaps, is in point by analogy to the particular question involved in the instant case.

As hereinbefore stated, the record in this case 'discloses that on the 19th day of September, 1914, the plaintiff filed his petition, with a copy of the note sued on attached thereto and marked “Exhibit A,” and on tbe *77 same day filed an affidavit of attachment in which it was alleged that the defendant was a non-resident of the state of Oklahoma, and that said cause of action and said debt arose upon contract made wholly within this state and the defendant was about to convert his property or a part thereof into money for the purpose of placing it beyond the reach of his creditors, and was about to assign, remove, and dispose of his property or a part thereof with the intent to defraud, hinder, and delay his creditors; and that on the same day an order of attachment was issued out of said court in the usual and customary form; and that on September 24. 1914, the sheriff made a return of the order with an inventory and appraisement of the property involved, showing a levy herein; and that on the 28th day of October.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Nellis v. Minton
1923 OK 372 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1923)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1921 OK 235, 200 P. 777, 83 Okla. 75, 1921 Okla. LEXIS 309, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/button-v-maker-okla-1921.